Roll surface maintenance

ABSTRACT

A mechanism for finishing highly accurate annular grooves in the surface of a paper machine press roll or the like including a small carriage movable circumferentially around the surface of a roll to be grooved, an arbor for carrying a rotary grooved finishing blade or alternately a grinder wheel, and the carriage having a frame traveling on front and rear wheels provided with a groove engaging follower and an adjustment for the frame to adjust the height and therefore the depth of groove finishing.

Unite States Patent [191 Adams ROLL SURFACE MAINTENANCE [75] Inventor: Richard J. Adams, Beloit, Wis. [73] Assignee: Beloit Corporation, Beloit, Wis. [22] Filed: Mar. 2, 1973 [21] Appl. No.: 337,717

[52] US. Cl 90/12 R, 51/241 S, 83/8 [51] int. Cl. B230 l/20 [58] Field of Search 90/12 R, 12 A, 12 C, 15 R, 90/151 A; 51/179 R, 170 PT, 241 R, 241 S,

[56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,116,158 11/1914 Swain "SI/170R 3,085,476 4/1963 Sloan et al. i 51/170 R X 3,214,868 11/1965 Riley 51/179 X [451 Oct. 8, 1974 3,421,411 1/1969 Lowry et al 90/12 R Primary Examiner-Gil Weidenfeld Attorney, Agent, or Firm-Hill, Gross, Simpson, Van Santen, Steadman, Chiara & Simpson 5 7] ABSTRACT A mechanism for finishing highly accurate annular grooves in the surface of a paper machine press roll or the like including a small carriage movable circumferentially around the surface of a roll to be grooved, an arbor for carrying a rotary grooved finishing blade or alternately a grinder wheel, and the carriage having a frame traveling on front and rear wheels provided with a groove engaging follower and an adjustment for the frame to adjust the height and therefore the depth of groove finishing.

5 Claims, 3 Drawing lFigures ll ROlLlL SURFACE MAINTENANCE BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to improvements in roll surface maintenance devices particularly for finishing rolls in paper making machines which are capable of patch finishing or cleaning or re-dimensioning grooves.

While the device obtains advantages in finishing rolls in many industries, it is particularly well adapted to use in rolls in paper making machines and will be described in that environment. Such rolls have surface conditions wherein the roll must be free of raised areas, damaged areas and foreign material and must be accurately finished. The roll surface is usually of a composition such as hard rubber or other material. These rolls have smooth outer surfaces which may contain accurate fine grooves.

For example, in press rolls in paper making machines, rolls having grooves of predetermined size have found pronounced commercial success. These rolls, and other rolls, must be maintained so that their surface is accurate and clean so that the surface is uniform throughout the length of the roll for a uniform treatment of the paper web which is being processed by the roll. Refinishing of an entire roll is common procedure and can be accomplished on large finishing machines with the roll removed from the paper making machine. However, often. a small area must be treated in such a manner as to be accurately conditioned to match the remainder of the roll. This occurs for example when a small area is damaged and filled. It has heretofore been necessary to remove such a roll and install it in an elaborate finishing machine in order to correct the defect and to machine the surface to the proper original contour or to accurately regroove the damaged area. Be cause of the time loss and expense involved in removing and repairing such a damage to a roll, it is highly desirable to be able to patch and accurately refinish such a roll in position on the machine requiringminimum shut-down time.

Various maintenance and repair problems occur with the many rolls employed in a paper making machine. For example, in a grooved roll the land areas may break out rendering the roll unusable. When this occurs, it has normally been the practice to remove the roll from its position in the machine and set it up in a lathe where all of the lands are machined off and new grooves are machined into remaining material. This not only involves the loss of time and expense, but the removal of the material reduces the overall running life of the roll. If this damaged area can be patched this is highly desirable, but heretofore, it has been difficult to refinish such a patched area accurately to the degree necessary to obtain the roll accuracy that will insure uniform treatment of the paper sheet processed by the roll over the entire length of the roll.

Another problem which is faced in roll operation is that in a grooved roll the rolls may fill with foreign material such as pulp and felt fibers. If a sufficient amount of this foreign material lodges in the grooves, they must be cleaned out. To attempt to do this manually requires an excess shut-down time and expense or a lathe must be set up in order to clean the grooves. Also because of the various types of lathes available it is often impossible to find in a paper mill a lathe available with sufficient accuracy and size range to clean out the grooves with sufficient proficiency.

Another problem which is faced by the industry is that in the original manufacture of grooved rolls, or in recovering grooved rolls or resurfacing them, the grooves are usually machined to a constant depth along the length of the roll. In many applications the roll surface then has to be crowned to accommodate roll deflection and after such crowning, the groove depth will be less at the ends of the roll face. This difference in groove depth can affect the performance of the roll adversely in that the surface will appear softer where the grooves are deeper and harder where the grooves are shallower so that the paper web is non-uniformly treated across the roll length. It is thus desirable to provide a method whereby the grooves at the end can be deepened so that they are of the same depth as the grooves in the center of the roll.

Also, with wear to the roll surface or damage to the grooves, it may be necessary to deepen the grooves after removing a surface amount to refinish the roll. The equipment needed to deepen the grooves is not normally available in a paper mill.

It is accordingly an object of the invention to provide an improved method and mechanism for making it pos sible to patch a damaged roll by accurately refinishing the patched surface to conform with the remainder of the roll.

A further object of the invention is to provide an improved mechanism having dexterity for treating grooved rolls which is capable of cleaning all grooves in the roll, of regrinding grooves that have been damaged, and of deepening grooves either at the end of a roll after if has been crowned removing material from the ends or of deepening all of the grooves after the roll has been resurfaced by grinding off a small amount from the surface.

A still further object of the invention to provide a roll resurfacing mechanism that can be used in place on a paper making machine without removing the roll and wherein the resurfacing mechanism is capable of forming a smooth annular surface or of cutting grooves in the roll and doing both with extreme accuracy.

Other objects, advantages and features, as well as the equivalent structures and methods which are intended to be covered herein, will become more apparent with the teaching of the principles of the invention in connection with the disclosure of the preferred embodiment thereof, in the specification, claims and drawings, in which:

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a somewhat schematic side elevational view of a mechanism embodying the principles of the inventron;

FIG. 2 is an end elevational view of the mechanism of FIG. 1; and

FIG. 3 is a fragmentary elevational view of a surface finishing wheel to be used on the machine.

DESCRIPTION As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2 of the drawings, a large roll 10 to be resurfaced or regrooved will be located in its operating position in its machine. For example, this may be a press roll in a press couple of a paper machine which will have a diameter on the order of 36 inches. It will be observed from the description that the same mechanism may be used for resurfacing or regrooving rolls of varying diameters and even very small rolls can be accommodated by'a minor change in dimension of the parts.

The mechanism for finishing the grooves is shown in the form of a carriage having a frame 12. The frame is L-shaped having a upper horizontal platform portion 12a and a vertical leg 12b. Carried on the platform portion 12a is a horizontal rotary arbor 13 for supporting a groove finishing blade 14. The arbor has head 13a and the blade will have a central opening to fit on the end of the arbor and be clamped in place by a washer 13b, held in place by a nut 130.

The arbor 13 is constructed so that it will carry either the groove finishing blade 14 or a surface finishing wheel 15. The groove finishing blade 14 is of a width prescribed by the desired width of the groove 11 to be finished. The surface finishing wheel 15 has a cylindrical outer surface. As will be seen the carriage is moved in a path along the roll 10 over an area to be resurfaced or regrooved, and if the path resurfacing job is to be completed, the vehicle will be moved circumferentially back and forth axially approaching the patched area and the frame 12 will be held at a accurate height as determined by the surface of the roll adjacent the patched area.

For driving the arbor in rotation a drive means in the form of an electric motor 17 is supported on the frame 12 and has a pulley 18 driving a belt 20 which is threaded over a drive pulley 19 on the arbor 13. Suitable means will be provided for controlling the operation of the motor.

The height of the frame 12 is determined by its support which is vertically adjustable. The support includes rear sets of wheels 21 and forward sets of wheels 22 which are supported on an axis substantially parallel to the axis of the arbor 13 and which are positioned at the ends of the frame 12 so that the arbor is supported therebetween. Each of the wheels 21 and 22 has an axially extending shaft shown at 23 for the front wheels with the wheels located at 24 and 25 at the ends of the shaft. The rear support 21 is similarly constructed with the wheels shown at 26.

At one end of the shafts 21 and 22 are located groove engaging guides 27 and 27a. These are of the width of the groove so that they hold the carriage steady and in alignment with the groove as it moves forward to cut or to resurface or clean the groove.

The depth of the groove cut is controlled to an accurate degree by the elevation of the frame. This is obtained by the frame being pivotal about its rear shaft 21 and adjustable in elevation relative to its front shaft 22. Vertical guide rods 28 and 29 extend through holes in the horizontal platform 12a of the frame to maintain the front shaft 22 in a constant position relative to the front edge of the frame 12. The vertical height of the frame is adjusted by a manually adjustable nut 30 threaded onto a vertical threaded shaft 31 on the front shaft 23.

In operation the operator will position the carriage with the groove cutter and cleaner 14 in the groove and the follower guides 27 and 27a in another groove and will move the carriage manually forward circumferentially around the roll 10. As the carriage moves forwardly the cutter 14 will cut and clean the grooves to an accurate depth determined by the surface of the roll. Because the wheels 21 and 22 follow the accurate surface of the roll, the cutter blade 14 is always maintained at a constant elevation relative to the roll surface. This constant elevation is true whether the mechanism is used for cutting grooves or whether the grinding wheel 15 is used for patch finishing.

I claim as my invention:

1. A mechanism for finishing highly accurate annular grooves in the surface of a paper machine press roll comprising a traveling carriage for moving in a longitudinal direction on the surface of a press roll circumferentially of the roll; said carriage including an elongate frame,

an arbor rotatably mounted on said frame with its axis extending trasversely thereof parallel to the roll axis and adapted for carrying a rotary machining tool;

a drive means supported on the frame for driving the arbor and the tool in rotation;

said arbor and said drive means being located on said frame intermediate the ends thereof,

adjustable support means on one end of the frame for engaging the outer surface of the roll and for adjusting the elevation of the frame and thereby controlling the depth of the groove, said support means including one set of laterally spaced feet, said carriage including another set of laterally spaced feet at the other end of the frame so that the frame is positively positioned relative to the roll surface; and

a set of longitudinally spaced blades on said feet for engaging the grooves of the roll positively positioning the carriage in a longitudinal direction.

2. A mechanism for finishing highly accurate annular grooves in the surface of a paper machine press roll constructed in accordance with claim 1:

wherein said feet are in the form of rollers having an axis parallel to the arbor axis.

3. A mechanism for finishing highly accurate annular grooves in the surface of a paper machine press roll constructed in accordance with claim 1:

including a groove finishing blade and a grinding wheel for being selectively mounted on said arbor.

4. A mechanism for finishing highly accurate annular grooves in the surface of a paper machine press roll constructed in accordance with claim 1:

wherein said adjustment means is located between the set of wheels on said one end of the frame for pivoting the frame about the other end.

5. A mechanism for finishing highly accurate annular grooves in the surface of a paper machine press roll constructed in accordance with claim 1:

wherein said frame is L-shaped with one end of the L resting on a shaft interconnecting said other set of feet and the other end of the L is slidably mounted on vertical posts extending upwardly from a shaft between said one set of feet.

t i i l l 

1. A mechanism for finishing highly accurate annular grooves in the surface of a paper machine press roll comprising a traveling carriage for moving in a longitudinal direction on the surface of a press roll circumferentially of the roll; said carriage including an elongate frame, an arbor rotatably mounted on said frame with its axis extending trasversely thereof parallel to the roll axis and adapted for carrying a rotary machining tool; a drive means supported on the frame for driving the arbor and the tool in rotation; said arbor and said drive means being located on said frame intermediate The ends thereof, adjustable support means on one end of the frame for engaging the outer surface of the roll and for adjusting the elevation of the frame and thereby controlling the depth of the groove, said support means including one set of laterally spaced feet, said carriage including another set of laterally spaced feet at the other end of the frame so that the frame is positively positioned relative to the roll surface; and a set of longitudinally spaced blades on said feet for engaging the grooves of the roll positively positioning the carriage in a longitudinal direction.
 2. A mechanism for finishing highly accurate annular grooves in the surface of a paper machine press roll constructed in accordance with claim 1: wherein said feet are in the form of rollers having an axis parallel to the arbor axis.
 3. A mechanism for finishing highly accurate annular grooves in the surface of a paper machine press roll constructed in accordance with claim 1: including a groove finishing blade and a grinding wheel for being selectively mounted on said arbor.
 4. A mechanism for finishing highly accurate annular grooves in the surface of a paper machine press roll constructed in accordance with claim 1: wherein said adjustment means is located between the set of wheels on said one end of the frame for pivoting the frame about the other end.
 5. A mechanism for finishing highly accurate annular grooves in the surface of a paper machine press roll constructed in accordance with claim 1: wherein said frame is L-shaped with one end of the L resting on a shaft interconnecting said other set of feet and the other end of the L is slidably mounted on vertical posts extending upwardly from a shaft between said one set of feet. 